A Grandmaster at Arms
by Actiferagon
Summary: Jax is most certainly one of the most profilic fighters in the League of Legends, with a mystery, charm and confidence matched by no one. But was he always like this? Join us as we delve into Jax's past, and unveil a story of a young boy who still has much to learn about the world and it's dangers.


A Grandmaster at Arms

"It is seldom the case where a champion is defined by his actions after joining the League of Legends rather than before. Such is the case with Jax, for whom the argument could be made that he is the most prolific tournament fighter currently at the Institute of War."

-Jax's lore

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"Wake up."

...

"Can you hear me? I said wake up!"

...huh? What's going on?

"Goddamnit, WAKE UP ALREADY!"

I jump up in shock and quickly turn to scan my surroundings, while my eyes try to adjust to the sudden intake of light.

Of the few seconds I was still trying to even begin to comprehend just what was going on, I was able to at least see where I was. Or, well, in my situation, the rough details a brain is able to take in while having several cases of shock, stress, and the most severe of them all: getting woken up in the middle of your sleep.

I can tolerate many things.

This is not one of them.

I groan as I begin to rub my temples, still barely awake, and take a look at my assaulter. Of course, it had to be her.

It's the same damn routine each morning.

"Time to wake up, sleepyhead!" She happily announced. "Now get up, it's a beautiful day today, and I won't let you waste it in bed!"

For those who don't know, this woman's name is Alexandra. She...well, how do I even begin to describe her? She really likes apples, that's for sure. Oh and she is also training me, teaching me how to fight.

Not that I can't fight, because I can. And I'm GOOD!

...but somehow she always manages to beat me whenever I battle against her. Never once have I won, and I have been so close several times, but she always comes out on top.

Slowly standing up, I look around myself, properly this time.

I see the insides of my own personal tent, made with silk from wool to let the cool air blow through in this hot weather, so one can find relief in taking a break from the pounding rays of the sun.

My tent was about as broad as a simple dining table one can find in any decent home, and had a height twice as big as me.

It was furnished with a few simple leather pouches and bags containing my belongings, a set of clothes lazily strewn around, a worn wooden staff, my weapon of choice during training, and a sleeping bag, which, as you probably can guess, is the one I was forced to break my very peaceful slumbering from.

"Come on, get dressed already! We don't have all day," She said. "How do you expect to survive a day on your own if you can't even wake up in time?"

I groaned once again as I stood up and began to put on some of the few clothes I had. It wasn't much, just a pair of light brown worn out leather pants, a white wool shirt, and sandals. Standard training equipment for me.

As I grabbed my staff and followed Alexandra outside, the fresh smell of forest hit my nostrils, and I took a long breath, enjoying the tinge of earliness it had to it. There is something special in the air on early mornings, a feeling that must be experienced, and cannot be explained with words.

I had a few moments to enjoy it, before I heard someone speak up.

"Good morning, Alex! Slept well?"

"Absolutely! There's nothing better than waking up early to fight! Right, Jax?"

I nodded slightly with an 'mhm', not really in the mood to start a conversation.

I don't think it would have mattered if I did anyway, because when the man looked at me, his face went completely devoid of emotions.

"Jax," he said, nodding towards me.

"Marcus," I said, returning the gesture.

He stared at me for a couple more seconds before heading back into his tent. How Alexandra didn't notice anything is beyond me.

As I followed her deeper into the forest, we ended up in a decently sized clearing. She dropped her backpack onto the grass and drew one of her swords, holding it in her left hand.

"I won't need to use both my blades on you, Jax, so you better give me a challenge

today," She said with a smirk.

Words that would infuriate me several years ago, I had learned from trial and error not to react to such choice of words whenever I faced a foe. As I drew my trusty bo staff, I started spinning it around a few times, getting a feel for the weapon, before I spun it and held it behind my back horizontally with one hand, while my other hand positioned itself in front of me, curled into a fist with my index and middle finger outstretched, the rest of my fingers bent downwards.

"Excellent!" She said, entering a battlestance herself. She held her sword outwards, with her other arm behind her back, as she slowly started circling around me.

I followed her movements while circling in the opposite direction, trying to find an opening.

We circled each other for a good full minute, before she decided she'd had enough and lashed out at me. I quickly spun my staff in front of me, blocking her attack. She didn't stop there, as she followed up with another blow, which I also blocked. She kept sending out a flurry of attacks while I easily kept blocking and dodging one after another, never letting my guard down.

I tried finding openings in her offense, but on the rare occasions I did, I didn't have time to exploit it, as she would quickly send out another attack and correct her mistake before I could do anything.

So I kept being patient, like she had told me so many times, and didn't stop blocking her attacks.

We went on for what felt like hours. Her movements started getting sloppy, but she was still careful, keeping her openings to a minimum. I could feel my muscles starting to give away a little, but I forced myself to keep going.

Soon, I thought to myself. She can't keep this parade going on forever.

And I was right. She did the mistake of over-extending on one of her blows, and as I blocked it, I saw my golden opportunity: she had slightly lost her balance on her last attack, and didn't seem like she would instantly recover from it this time, so I exploited it.

Slashing her sword to the side with my staff, I spun around and hit her leg, further reducing her balance and forcing her down to one knee while making her gasp in the process, which gave me enough time to bring up my staff and slash it down on her.

But she saw it coming, so she quickly rolled backwards into a handstand, using her momentum to propel herself upwards into a back flip and landing on her feet. I was having none of that, however. I had waited seven years for an opportunity like this, and I wasn't gonna let it slip out of my hands.

I jumped forward, reaching a height which must have been at least two metres, as I once again brought my staff above my head, in an attempt to strike her down.

Alexandra's eyes widened in horror, and she attempted to bring up her sword in a weak attempt to defend herself.

During that short moment, I could feel my heart pick up a beat. Was this finally it? My long awaited victory? I could feel the excitement coursing through my veins. She had been beating me for over seven years, almost everyday, never letting me win a single time. That moment in the air felt like an eternity, as if time slowed down specifically for this moment. And I grinned, a childish but victorious grin, knowing that I had won...

...or so I thought.

When I was a few milliseconds from hitting her, a small smirk appeared on her face. Just when my staff was as close to her head as it possibly could be, she vanished.

"What the fu-" was all I had time to say, before I felt a blade press itself against my throat from behind.

"I win again!" Alexandra happily announced.

I dropped my staff.

"How..." I began, feeling my eyes getting teary. "You...you teleported! That's cheating!"

Releasing me from her deadly grip, she started shaking her head.

"When you're in the field, you won't have time to complain about cheating, because by the time it happens, you'd be dead." She said, adding a cold tone to her voice. "You have to expect the unexpected. Anything could happen at anytime, and you should be glad that you are alive."

After looking at me sternly for a while, her gaze softened, and she put on that smile she always does after our little battles, going so far as to hug me.

"If it makes you feel better, you did really good today." She said, not making me feel better in the slightest.

Since her 'efforts' didn't seem to ease my mood, I simply pulled myself out of her hug and ran out from the clearing, into the wilderness.

"Jax, wait!" She called after me, but I ignored it. I hopped up onto the nearest branch, jumping from tree to tree to arrive as high up as possible. The trees in this forest stretched really high up, and I climbed the highest one I could find, ending up what seemed to be about a hundred metres above the ground. It spiralled higher than the other trees, giving me a great view of the forest.

Sitting down on a branch as far out as I could without breaking it, I stared at the view which was before me. It was really beautiful.

Nothing lasts forever, though. After a few moments, I couldn't help but break down into tears. I hated Alexandra for what she did, I hated her so much! I had never been this close winning before!

And then she had the nerve to...do what she did! How'd she even do that!?

I screamed in anger over my loss, something that, now that I look back on it, was really childish.

But I shouldn't be surprised, since I did lose to a woman hailing from the DuCouteau family. It's a miracle I even got so close, and being a naive teenager isn't easy.

But alas, had I not lost that day, had I not climbed up into that tree, I would never have been cursed, or blessed (if you can look at it that way), with the condition I am in today.

As the morning went by, my anger slowly subsided as my mood slightly eased down, and I just sat there, staring over the horizon.

My mind was blank, and nothing happened for quite some time, except the moments I had to change my sitting position to prevent myself from falling off that branch.

The sun slowly travelled higher into the sky, into it's never ending journey of floating above us and into the horizon, to let the moon take over and cover the sky with thousands of twinkling- actually, screw it, I'm not a poet, and I'm not gonna try. So before I knew it, the night was upon me.

As the cool night air started sending shivers down my spine, and having sulked enough, I decided it was time to head back to my tent and sleep. I knew Alexandra had to be worried shitless about me for being gone for so long, but honestly, I didn't really care.

Standing up, I started climbing downwards, branch by branch. The lack of illumination didn't make it any easier, but the moon provided enough light for me to atleast see the branches.

As I carefully went down, the climbing became a mindless interaction of finding a branch, jumping down to it, catching my balance, find another branch, and repeating .

Until I heard a strange noise coming from the tree itself. Following the branch I currently stood on with my eyes, I saw a hole in the tree the size of a human head.

From where I was, I could hear faint whispers coming from it, and a dull purple light, just enough to be visible.

Maybe a squirrel family meeting? I thought, finding slight humor at the idea.

As I approached the hole, the whispers became louder, and sounded more like some kind of...chanting?

I peeked inside the hole, and saw a purple glowing orb inside. There were runes written in a seemingly ancient language all over the orb, the unreadable letters pulsating with a lighter shade of purple, fading in and out over and over. The chanting became louder and faster, putting an invisible pressure on me.

I could feel it, the orb wanted me to grab it, feel it, absorb it, constantly pounding my head with a need, a need for the orb, a need for the hidden power it contained, a need to use the power to destroy everything, to conquer the world, to enslave all races, and take over the univer-

I shook my head. What is this thing? I thought.

The longer I looked at it, the more I seemed to want it. it felt like being in a trance, as ones mind slowly gets pulled inside, losing all control and just listening to the orb, doing what it wants, granting one limitless power to bend to ones will with just one touch, use the power to destroy and kill, kill, KILL-

"Jax! Get away from there!" A familiar voice filled my ears, completely removing all the chanting whispers I heard before. As I looked toward the orb, I noticed my hand was just a few centimetres away from the thing, almost about to touch it.

I looked down towards the ground, where the familiar voice had come from, and saw Alexandra waving from there.

"Jax! Whatever you do, don't touch that thing!" She shouted. I blinked a few times, before the reality of her words sunk in. Intending to get away from the orb, I was just about to take a step away from it, when fate decided to have one of it's infamous "nope, fuck you" moments.

So basically, I slipped. And if that wasn't enough, my hand was still inside the hole, a few centimetres above the orb.

And to make matters even worse, my body activated the reflex of slamming both hands down as hard as possible in hope of grabbing on to something to prevent falling, and that 'something' my friends, was the orb.

The forest was filled with the echoes of my screams.

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Author's note:

So I decided to start writing a fanfic. Not sure where I want to go with this one, but one thing is for sure: its gonna be about Jax.

So, uh...what do you think? Is it good? Is it terrible? Do you want more? or do you want me to burn in hell for starting something that I'll probably never finish?

Theres no way for me to know what you think if you dont review. I'm mostly interested in constructive criticism, but every comment serves as a giant morale boost for me. So if you want me to keep writing...comment! Rate! All that stuff...

Anyways, see you next chapter!


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